US employers advertise more jobs in October

Share via e-mail

WASHINGTON — US employers advertised more jobs in October than in September, a sign hiring could pick up soon. The Labor Department said Tuesday that job openings rose by 128,000 to 3.68 million, the most since June.

The number of available jobs is slowly climbing back to the roughly 4 million advertised each month before the recession began in 2007.

With nearly 12.3 million people unemployed in October, there were 3.3 unemployed people, on average, competing for each open job. That’s the lowest ratio since November 2008. In a healthy economy, the ratio is roughly 2 to 1.

The number of available construction jobs jumped to 130,000, from 82,000 in September. That’s the most in more than four years. The housing market is slowly recovering.

Job openings also rose in manufacturing, retail, and ­hotels and restaurants. Professional and business services, a category that includes engineers and accountants as well as temporary jobs, also posted more openings.